"Church Growth writers sound like a hard-driving North American businessman, armed with a sheaf of statistics, eager for new take-overs and determined to keep his concern within a category outlined by 'growth companies.' "

-J. B. A. Kessler, Ir., July 1968

in The International Review of Missions

"We . . . urge readers not to be carried away by the enthusiasm of pragmatics at the expense of real dependence upon God. To become too absorbed in methods based on psychological and sociological insights is to invite superficial or even counterfeit spiritual results."

-Robert T. Coote, June 1975

in Eternity

"What should be rejected is a craving desire for success. … The fault does not lie with church growth concepts but in a lust for success on the part of some ministers and lay people. Our need is not to get rid of or avoid the subject of church growth. The need is to be rid of an unholy obsession with success."

-Foster H. Shannon, 1977

in The Growth Crisis in the American Church

(William Carey ...